If you ask someone engaged in email marketing what their major concern is, the majority of times they will say it is their open rate. All rather odd as they must realise that the completion rate is the only one that matters.

With that caveat, here are some pointers on to how to increase your open rate.

1/ History

You can’t take any single facet of email marketing on its own. They are all interlinked. If your previous emails have been relevant to subscribers, have caused them to consider buying what you have offered, then regardless of whether they have completed, they are likely to open any further ones. In other words, high quality targeted emails are an essential.

2/ Personal

Subscribers are generally quite shrewd and will notice personalisation, especially that which is done for their convenience. This engenders loyalty.

There is no excuse for not making the email specific to the person you are sending it to. That does not only mean using their preferred method of address, but working out what has been good for them in the past. For instance, checking through the email marketing software returns will show the time of day of their highest open rate. Ensure that you hit this always. Except, that is . . .

3/ Testing

Test everything and all the time. If you are suffering from a steady drop in open rate, resend the unopened email at a different time. Nothing stays the same. 

4/ Excite

One way of generating a higher open rate is to add teasers, something specific to them. It will show that you are interested in them individually so they’ll look forward to the offer coming in a fortnight’s time. 

5/ Give them something

Most people join an email marketing list because they believe they will get something back: a better product, a lower price or perhaps early notification. If your offers are not that tempting then why should they bother to open your email? The same goes for the reverse: good deals mean high open rates.

6/ Believe the returns of your email marketing software

If you offer a range of, for instance, software products, then it is probable that a subscriber will favour some over others. If their history shows that they never open those offering, perhaps, systems for small office management, then they do not require such software. If you continue to offer identical products then you are wasting a window and increasing the chances of your subscriber ignoring them all.

7/ Good housekeeping

Clean your lists. Whilst this might seem pointless as, although your open rate will increase if non-responders are removed, the number will stay the same. However, your returns will be accurate and you can plan and experiment on dependable data.

8/ Subject Line

Saving the most obvious to last is a bit childish but does encourage reading through. Do the same for your Subject Line. Its function is to encourage subscribers to open the email so phrase the few words in a way that intrigues them. Experimentation is the only way.

Good open rates do not stand alone but are generated in the main through sensible systems throughout your email marketing campaigns.